Can diabetes mellitus be induced by medication?

The possible relation between diabetes mellitus and the use of psychotropic medications in adult psychiatric patients has been discussed in the literature. In child and adolescent psychiatry, however, there have been only two previous case reports of an adolescent who developed diabetes mellitus while receiving psychotropic medications. We present three adolescents who developed diabetes mellitus after combined treatment with divalproex sodium and atypical antipsychotics. All were African American, obese, and had a family history of diabetes mellitus. We discuss each case and examine the possibility of psychotropic medication-induced diabetes mellitus in adolescents.